Gates of Tartarus
by Ifrit Morningstar
Summary: A twist of fate has led the lives of the Teen Titans and two of its new members down a path of shadow and death. Soon these mighty heroes will be challenged when dark truths are unearthed and friends turn on friends...Rated-M for extreme reasons.


**Disclaimer:** We don't own any ownership any material of DC Comics or Cartoon Network's Teen Titans. We do however reserve rights to the original character list: Kri and Ifrit, as well as the plot of this fanfiction, any other material associated is purely coincidental.

**A/N:** This is another joint-fanfiction of _**Forsakened**_and _**Darklost**_. We've collaborated our creativity and this fanfiction came into being. So everyone is well aware, this will be a dark-themed fanfiction, so all material will be M-Rated due to the heavy violence, character deaths, and other important elements. If you are the faint of heart or do not like to see your favorite DC characters go down the dark path, then go ahead and avoid this fanfiction. Before anyone starts asking random questions, material that will be shown in this prologue will be quickly explained as the story progresses so please bear that in mind before asking for things to be explained, so just be patient. As for our character, I think everyone who has been a reader already knows about Ifrit, but he will be re-explained for the purpose of this fanfiction, which in a way is an AU of that fanfiction, with the introduction of Kri, who also will be explained thoroughly, so again, just be patient. Now then, since that is taken care of, let's begin the horror show already…

_**))))))))))**_

**Prologue**

The central lake in the middle of Jump Park began to mist and swirl as whirlpool made itself manifest in the center. A lone being rose up from the swirling vortex in a gown of pure midnight and mist. She opened her eyes and gazed up at the starry night sky and paused to admire its beauty, even if her mission was of the utmost importance…she could not help but take a moment to enjoy such a rare sight for one such as her, for someone that had been locked away in the darkness so very long. Blinking away, she steeled her resolve and pressed forward to begin her search. She did not have any more time to waste on pleasantries, even the moment she had wasted would eventually caught her, forcing her to speed her progress up. She glided over the lake much like a wraith; the vortex she had come out of slowly closing behind her and returning to a calm surface of water.

She raised a hand up before her, in it was a helm, which she placed on her head and the moment it touched her scalp, her form became invisible to all, becoming truly a ghost to this world.

She moved unnoticed into the city, ignoring the common routine of mortals who worked their lives during the night. They held no interest to her of any sort; she had only one group of mortals that perked enough interest for her to make this venture, and in some sort of ironic work of the Fates themselves, they bore the name of those her kind once vanquished. Truly, the Fates had a very wicked sense of humor.

The ones she sought took mere moments to locate. For someone like her, tracking them was but a simple task, taking her deep into the modern city the mortals had crafted. In less than a minute, she found them; all of them fighting what she knew were a common rivaling group of young villains. The Fates had led her true as she hoped. Indeed, a battle between them had commenced in a temple dedicated to knowledge of the past. They seemed to be battling for the lost treasures stored within the glass treasure chests that encased them. The ones she sought were in the midst of warding them away from the riches and trying to apprehend the thieving youths.

Their battle was reaching a heated climax; the moment she had come for was nearly arriving. These youth have fought and challenged forces beyond their limitations, and yet, they overcame those odds with surprising determination…but tonight, one of them would die. This one death would have been unavoidable in the machinations of the Fates, but she had to risk tampering with their masterwork and pull the strings of these mortals to change that outcome. Were she anything like her father, she would have allowed the death of the one, and then approach these mortals and offer them a deal to aid the return of their fallen comrade. That option was impossible to her at the current state of things. They had to survive, and so they would…

She studied them for a moment, picking which of them would best be of use. She was intrigued when she looked into two individuals and saw the spiritual link that connected the two. Obviously, they two shared a deep bond forged by trust and friendship, and yet she can see it ran deeper than what most mortals only dreamed of possessing. Then she noticed another pair with a link of similar nature. These two were new to the group of mortals, having just recently joined their cause, but they were more than human…something darker. They move as if reading the others mind before they even thought it and acted accordingly to it by sheer instinct.

Yes, these four would be perfect.

Reaching out with her hand, she used her powers to grant the more spiritual aware mortals, the two females, the gift of premonition. Now it was up to these mortals to take advantage of her gift and watch the outcome of this new change of destiny.

**))))))))))**

Things were starting to go badly for her teammates. They were being pushed back by the H.I.V.E Five, who had managed to get the upper hand when they started to use the guardsman in the museum as hostages. Kyd Wykkyd had been teleporting around everywhere gathering the hostages as leverage when they were beginning to lose. The two new additions to the team had definitely given them the advantage in number and manpower with this type of tactic, especially as they both had the ability to teleport themselves; a useful ability. They were busy trying to save the hostages as fast as they were being captured. They had recently been added to their team, having been found living in an abandoned building that was vacated after the incident when their arch-nemesis, Slade, had possessed demonic powers.

They were checked out and quickly learned they were safe after a short preliminary trial to see if they were genuine or fakes. In that time, Raven had spent time getting to know them, working on gaining their trust and open up to her. After some time with them, they finally started to give way and when they did, Raven had found an unlikely kinship in the pair. They liked the dark and different, they had sharp and opened minds, refreshing the empath from the 'lack' of mental challenge her friends and teammates could provide.

It was finalized when they both started calling her 'nee-chan', both having Japanese upbringing, and much to the team's delight, both had studied the art of ninjutsu under an unknown, wandering master. The term had warmed Raven's usual locked heart, feeling honored that they could view her as a sister, in which she reciprocated by opening somewhat more of herself to them and even adopting some of the personal endearments they used with her.

Kri and Ifrit had slowly made themselves trusted members of the Teen Titans, but it seemed that wasn't going to last…

A girl with large black baggy cargo pants with red fish net long sleeve shirt, her hair comes to her mid back it's all red with a streak of pink in it. She wore a pentagram around her neck with her name written in kanji in the middle of it. She stood at five-four with reddish pink eyes; her skin was the color of white marble with a hint of ash to it, suddenly stopped in the middle of grabbing another hostage and getting him to safety when her vision swirled all around her, and then pain swelled in her heart. Tears formed in her reddish pink hues; everything around her seemed to slow down as thoughts and emotions all rushed through her at once. The image of green and tan flickered and warped until it created a picture of a surreal looking green elf who appeared to be lying…dead in a pool of red thick liquid, standing over the green changeling was one of the H.I.V.E Five, the one she learned was called Mammoth, with blood covering his body, staining the front of him with the crimson liquid, his fists covered with gore.

"Beast Boy!" Kri gasped, panic had given way to fear, fear gave way to anger, bringing her back into the present.

Kri jerked her head toward Beast Boy who appeared to be caught in a net by the one she knew as Gizmo, her reddish pink hued-eyes grew wide as she watched the large mammoth-like man ascend into the air like a rocket, her heart nearly stopped, seeing the vision she had just witnessed becoming reality. She looked to the person beside her, her other half, the reason she existed. He knew her better than anyone.

He towered over her by a good two feet. Most of his features were hidden under a red sleeveless hoodie and a black face-mask that covered everything below his eyes, melding into his black muscle-shirt, but she knew his skin was as grey as ash, his eyes were pooled like two molten orbs of heated metal, mixing between red and an angry orange. The rest of his outfit was simple baggy black pants, fingerless black gloves, with red gauntlets with black gems over each knuckle and red greaves, and black combat sandals with red bandage wrappings around his ankles up to his calves, plus more wrappings on his forearms under his gauntlets.

Ifrit looked at the girl beside him, instantly knowing what was gonna happen from the mental link they shared.

"He's not going to die today…'" he vowed.

Nodding in understanding, Kri and Ifrit both disappeared in a wave of heat and fire…

Raven picked up on Kri's emotions just as the same vision played over her glowing eye right as she saw Mammoth launch himself into the air. When it was over, her eyes were replaced with tears and the warning in her throat to her friend was choked by the sudden fear and rage that swelled up in her heart. The killing intent coming from Mammoth confirmed the gargantuan teenager's intent as he readied to deliver a crushing blow, resulting in the grim scene she had just foreseen. Her fear gripped her more as he started to descend from the air, already his fists were slamming down on her green teammate. In a moment of panic, she called forth her energy, more than she should have in any attack and prepared to do something that she never thought she could do.

His death was but in mere moments, but then she watched as the teleporting duo appeared on either side of Mammoth, summoning their energy together. It started to dance around them, concentrating it into a single orb of red and pinkish energy in their respective hands; as that was another one of their powers besides teleportation. They could harness the raw emotion of their anger and manifest it into a lethal force of fire and spiritual energy. It started to grow, getting bigger and bigger in an instant…and then Ifrit and Kri released their combined energy.

Everything around them seemed to stop as the blast shot toward their enemy. They weren't proud of having to take a life, but they would do whatever it took to protect the people they have come to call their friends, maybe even family. They watched the energy blaze through Mammoth's torso like a hot knife cutting through butter, neatly severing his upper body from his lower torso. The remaining half of his upper torso flew harmlessly over the surprised changeling, landing in a heap at the foot of the horrified tiny genius, who gawked at the surprised, dead look of his massive friend.

"M-Mammoth?" Gizmo shrieked in horror, inching away from the burnt, severed corpse.

Kri and Ifrit looked toward the other Titans as they seemed horrified by their actions; they noticed Raven as she nodded toward them in understanding, calling away the black energy she had just been ready to unleash and strike down the H.I.V.E student.

Kri hugged Ifrit tightly crying into his chest. "Ifrit...w...e...we..."

Ifrit hugged Kri tightly until her crying stopped, becoming mere sniffles.

"Shhh, it had to be done, Kri...we had to," Ifrit said to his other half with more emotion in his voice then he dared to show, trying to convince himself as well as her that it was going to be all right.

Robin walked to stand behind Ifrit and Kri spoke quietly. "You're actions were justified...I understand it was a…" He paused, trying to find the right words to comfort his teammates, after what seemed like centuries to Ifrit and Kri, their leader spoke again. "…Necessary evil."

"... Robin...how can you say that! They killed him, nothing can justify killing!" the red headed alien-girl of the team spoke rather loudly.

"Starfire is right, Robin. We gotta take them in," Cyborg said nearly in a whisper, stepping up to Robin rather closely.

Robin steeled himself, tightening his fists. He turned to the burnt remains of one of their moderate villains, now a very deceased villain. He remained silent once more that seemed almost too long, and then finally he pointed at the traumatized genius.

"Get out of here…all of you," Robin said darkly.

Billy Numerous, one of the H.I.V.E. who wore red-tights and yellow goggles, multiplied himself five times and took it upon himself to pick up Mammoth's remains. "…Ya'll gonna pay for this, I swear it!"

His intimating factor died when a birdarang sliced just a hair too close to his head.

"I said, get out!" Robin nearly shouted, almost coming out as a roar.

The frightening tone the Boy Wonder scared the remaining H.I.V.E student witless, and they quickly vacated, too afraid by what the Titans may do next to them.

Robin appeared to be trying to calm himself, trying to slow down his breathing and relax his fists, but he only managed the breathing part. "Let's return to the tower…"

"We have to take these two to the authorities first," Cyborg stated, pointing at the silent pair.

Robin gritted his teeth together and snarled. "I said back to the tower…no discussion until then."

Raven went over to Kri and Ifrit and whispered to them, "Just teleport back to the tower with me…we'll get this all straightened now. I'll protect you."

"…A-Arigatou, nee-chan," Kri said softly, burying herself in Ifrit's arms.

Ifrit simply nodded and the three of them vanished in a flicker of fire and shadows.

"Robin? What's going on with you? They just killed someone!" Cyborg accused.

"We'll discuss this back at the tower…" Robin declared, heading for the exit in a walk that clearly indicated the end of the conversation.

Cyborg grimacing, seeing Starfire and Beast Boy looked as unsure as he did, but reluctantly followed behind their team leader.

_**))))))))))**_

The mortals had left and already she could see their destinies changing. It was a pity that not all of them were very receptive to the actions the two newcomers. She never could figure out why mortals, who seemed to be endlessly fighting one another, would shun the idea of eliminating their opponent. Too many of them would gladly choose to end theirs for lesser reasons, but these two did what they could to protect their comrade…such foolish creatures.

This might set her plan back, if all of them turned on the two newcomers, then she would have to take more drastic measures with them. She hoped they would oversee this trivial moment and focus on the real sufficient reason. Only time would tell now…and if all goes as she planned, the world may have hope yet.

"My father…I will save you, no matter the cost," she whispered silently to herself as her invisible form began journeying to the home of these so-called Teen Titans.


End file.
